La frontière au guichet

Abstract : This contribution aims to analyze the European migration policy from an unusual point of view: interviews and accounts about Schengen visas- allocation practices at the Italian Embassy in Rabat and at the Italian Consulate in Casablanca. Fieldwork has showed numbers of architectural and procedural blocking devices, of filtering devices technologies and regulations and processes of externalisation outsourcing to private agencies. Finally, I could stress avoidance mechanisms as consequences of those blocking and filtering devices: the emergence of formal and informal practices to bypass the border at the window.